A book editor speaks: “Having a door and a window is starting to feel like having a car and driver.” Read more: Cubicles Rise in a Brave New World of Publishing (The New York Times).
There have long been cubicles (or less) in publishing. Back in college, I did a summer internship at Basic Books, whose space was a mix of offices, cubicles, and desks on the open range. I, a lowly copywriter, had an office with a window. The previous occupant, an editor, had recently died. The fellow who supervised me was in a cubicle. The editorial assistants had desks set against a long wall, no dividers.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Cubicles in publishing
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“As I looked at these places, there was just this energy and buzz and sense of excitement of collaborative human endeavor that really was kind of exhilarating,” he said.
Spoken like an extrovert who has no idea how energy sapping such a setting is to an introvert. Yuck. Well, we don't matter anyway.
Yeah. Being the boss, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
When I was an in-office proofreader, my office was an old closet: a hole had been cut in the wall that looked into the hallway, but I had to run a little fan to get any air circulation.
When I quit after a year and a half, I told my boss I needed "more air, more light, more human contact."
She was suspicious and asked me if there wasn't really "something else"... as if those were insane things to want.
Somehow I picture that closet with a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. What a clueless boss you must have had.
Such a closet appeared in Memoir from Antproof Case.
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